Julia Curyło was born in Warsaw.She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and got her MFA in 2009 (class of Leon Tarasewicz). She is an author of paintings and installations presented in public city space. In January of 2010 she won the competition organized by the Gallery A19 operating at the Marymont metro station in Warsaw. Her big-format mural Lambs of God that was presented there brought her publicity.

In November of the same year Curyło received a Grand Prix from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as well as the award of bwa Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz during the PROMOTIONS 2010 in the Gallery of Art in Legnica. In May of 2011 she was nominated for a prestigious award of the 10th edition of Geppert Competition. Subsequent years brought others exhibitions and presentations of Curyło’s art, including her objects displayed in city space, including Warsaw, Poznań (festival No Women No Art) and Bydgoszcz. In 2012 Julia Curyło was listed amongst the first fifteen in a ranking of the most important young artists — the Compass of Young Art. The same year she received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage designated for a production of series of pneumatic sculptures”chicks”.

The paintings by Julia Curyło, brimming with symbolism, hyper-realistic and surreal at the same time, addresses the issues of broadly understood contemporaneity and modernity. Her works refer to religion ( “Church Fairs and miraculous visions “ series), consumerism , women’s art history( “Chicks” installation), science and technology (“Large Hadron Collider” series), migrations (“Euro-series) and kitsch. Julia's works are strongly sensual and energetic .

"I am interested in the ambiguity of the world — devotion juxtaposed next to perversity, childishness to maturity, morality to licentiousness, truth to falsity, or beauty next to kitsch. The origins of my work can be found mainly in surrealism and neo-pop. My art is oriented toward intellectual reception - symbolism used in my art is difficult to decipher during the initial encounter, it encourages contemplation and decipherment of riddles and hidden meanings, which are often full of irony and eventually prompt a smile. "

2016 Ministry of Culture and National Heritage grant for a TeO series of paintings and objects

2012 Ministry of Culture and National Heritage grant for a production of series of works Chicks, Warsaw, Poland

2011 Nomination for the 10th Geppert Competition, Wroclaw, Poland

2010 Grand Prix at the Promotions 2010 painting competition organized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (and also a special award of the BWA Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz), Promotions 2010, Gallery ofArt, Legnica, Poland

2010 First Prize in 6th 19A Gallery Competition for a mural at the Marymont subway station station no. 19A - in Warsaw, organized by Pociag do Sztuki Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

“Julia Curyło. She shows the ambiguity of our life: the small-town mentality, the piety and the perversity (...). After all, we come from two different traditions. I come from the tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania — an area of huge empty spaces, where narration is nonexistent.Julia comes from the tradition of the Polish Crown, the Polish painting which uses symbols to tell us about the world. Curyło sets her foot deeply in this tradition — her flock of lambs over the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science refers to the whole tradition of symbolists.”

“Resorting to kitsch aesthetics and blending evocative references to religion and eroticism through her painted inflatables, reminiscent of Jeff Koons's, Julia Curyło challenges the 21st century viewer.”

Anna Ferrari, art historian, University of Cambridge, UK

Julia Curyło is an artist “who does not use clichés or follow the standards adopted in the artistic circles”. (…) “She combines highculture with pop culture, and plays with ambiguity.”

Życie Warszawy, 9.01.2010

“In spite of the explicit connotations, which I find amusing, I must admit that Julia Curyło’s work provokes reflection on religion, even if it is not intended by the author. She winks at the viewers and provokes to reflect on the morality of Varsovians (or maybe on the morality of those who believe themselves to be the créme de la créme of Warsaw?). It is too bad that Poles have problems with sense of humour, but cannot be accused of a lack of hypocrisy.”

Newsweek, 18 January 2010

“From my point of view, I feel deprived of any desire to verbalize the message by the sensuality and energy of these works, though at the same time, they make me keep up my subtle inner smile and the desire to experience things. Julia’s works are like a perfectly composed and mixed piece where the number of samples does not matter because they have been processed into a uniform formula which enables significances and symbols to be mutated. I believe that it is only a matter of time before we see more of these spatial works, signed and described as an art object or installation by Julia Curyło.”

Leszek Knaflewski

artist, Professor of the University of Art in Poznań

“However, the works which received awards or honorary mentions showed some unique attempts to revitalize painting. Julia Curyło, the Grand Prix winner, presents Warsaw landscapes but screened by plastic balloons and shaped as chickens, flowers, etc., which lends a surrealist atmosphere to them, brings them into some form of magical realism.”

Izabela Kowalczyk

art historian and critic, university lecturer, ARTMIX magazine editor

th A comment on Julia Curyło’s winning of the “Promotions 2010 – The 20 National Young Painting Review”,